I see this topic come up all the time on the forums, so I thought I would post some helpful basic information to help you out if you ever lose or misplace your phone.

I think the first thing that everyone ask themselves when they realize they can't find their phone is "can I track it?". The answer is most likely yes you can! There's several useful applications and tools available to track Android, iPhone, and Windows phone's.

Android

Android has several really great applications for tracking your lost phone some need to be installed prior to losing your phone while others don't, here's a couple of my personal favorites:

Total Equipment Protection- Being enrolled in Sprint's Total Equipment Protection is required. I don't see many people mention this application and it's a shame, because its a really nice application. This application allows you to

Plan B- This application is probably the one I see most people suggest because of the fact that you can download AFTER you lost your phone. The application is pretty basic compared to other applications but it does what the most important thing is, finding your phone. You will need access to your Gmail account registered on the phone (the one thats assigned to your Android Market/Google Play account)Once the application finishes downloading it will attempt to launch as soon as it downloads but in some cases you will need to send a text to get it started.

Find my iPhone- Really, this trumps all other applications in my opinion, Apple has really done a great job with the integration of their Find my iPhone application/utility. Anyone with a Sprint iPhone should be running iOS 5 or later which has the Find my iPhone feature built in to the operating system. This feature allows you to track a device on the web (www.icloud.com) or by using the find my iPhone application on another iOS device. All you have to do is turn on iCloud and then go into the iCloud settings and enable the Find My iPhone option, other features include

I haven't had any experience with third party applications but I have used the Find my Phone before, it's been a while but the features have stayed the same!

Find my phone- Like Apples Find my iPhone this application is great and is already integrated into the phone and doesn't require you to download any software. You will need your Windows Live ID and you can begin using the service by going to windowsphone.com and signing in. Besides tracking the phone this offers several features including

Other tips and suggestions would be looking into getting the phone flagged as lost or stolen by contacting us at 1-888-211-4727.

If you're unable to find the phone using any of the above suggestions you have a few different options for replacing it like purchasing a preowned device at a heavily discounted price by going to Sprint.com selecting Shop > Phones > clicking preowned under the condition filter option towards the bottom or you can file a claim to have the phone replaced if you are currently enrolled in Total Equipment Protection or the Equipment Replacement Program. To file a claim go to www.phoneclaim.com/sprint or call Asurion at 1-800-584-3666.

If you have any other suggestions for locating a lost or stolen phone please share your suggestions and I'll add them to the list!

The European Commission and US Justice Department both announced yesterday the approval of Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility. There's still a few more hurdles (China, Israel, and Taiwan) before it's a done deal, but most would agree they are likely to follow suit.

A lot of people believe the biggest motivation for this is the patents it would gain, but I'm hoping they decide to develop their own line of phones. While they've already sold a few items under the Google name such as the Google Nexus phones, they've never actually designed the electronics hardware itself and by doing so would give them full control over the software and hardware process which is currently how Apple does it.

This news combined with the recent report by Wall Street Journal claiming that Google is developing a wireless home entertainment system has me really excited about the possibilities of future Google products.

Having successfully ventured into internet search, browser software, and Android OS and now the addition of hardware manufacturing capability; would you buy a Google entertainment system or Google manufactured phone?